Category: Name Dropping

More to Read (Not That I’m Complaining)

I attended a presentation at the local library yesterday by poet, author, and teacher Luis H. Francia, called “Longing and Belonging: The Idea of Home in Asian American Literature”. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my thoughts on the eye-opening themes of his lecture, how they’ve impacted my personal views on my culture which impacts on my writing, to myself (for now!). Suffice it to say that I was honored to get to speak with the man briefly afterward, and was pleased that the library actually carried two out of the three books he suggested to me, namely the novels Gangster of Love by Jessica Hagedorn and Brian Ascalon Roley’s American Son. The library didn’t have the third, Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, but a local bookstore did.

Yeah, I bought it and borrowed American Son. Yeah, I know I already bought a crapload of books to read. I bought a couple more on top of that last week, too. I’ll read what I want. Hey, quit yelling at me…

Hobknobbing

I went to the local comic-book show last Saturday and got to hang out a bit with VERTIGO editor Will Dennis, who steers such fine books as DMZ, 100 BULLETS, and Y: THE LAST MAN. I also attended a talk he gave last Thursday at the library. The talk was billed as a how-to on breaking into comics, but as usually happens in I-town during talks like this where only an interested few show up, the talk regresses into chilling out and talking shop. Which is still cool. I heard lots of stuff about the biz that I’ve heard before, but that sounds more real coming from someone neck-deep in it.

Besides, where else was I gonna sit two feet away from comic book legend Roger Stern? God, I’ve lived in this town for two years and I’m still too nervous to talk to the man. He’s a veteran with cool war stories, talking about stuff like conversations he had with folks like Frank Miller back in the day.

The show itself was fun. The scenery wasn’t as interesting since I got there as soon as it opened, beating the crowd. Not that it’s Nerd Prom or anything, but the room is small and can get cramped in short order. I continued rebuilding the lost collection of my youth, finding books I’d owned in years past in “good” to “very good” condition. Stuff like old issues of Rom and Dectective Comics from the early 80s–comics that are twenty-five years really, really old–that I remember, for example, buying in a 7-11 that’s no longer around, etc.

My “big score” was a discounted copy of Adrian Tomine’s Summer Blonde. I’m telling you, it’s a must-read. His stuff always keeps me enthralled.